2 Kings 19 (Part 2) Bible Study (Hezekiah's Prayer/Isaiah Prophesies Sennacherib's Fall) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Meet me in Second Kings Chapter 19 as we complete this chapter

2 Kings 19 · chapter mention

tonight. By the grace of God, many of us

have been taught that when we are visited by crisis, we should

never hesitate to run to God in prayer.

But I'm not sure. How many of us are equally

equipped to know how we should pray in crisis?

And to our great encouragement, the Holy Spirit provides us

guidance in our text this evening as we look at Hezekiah's

strong example in this area. Yeah, I'm reminded as I've been

studying this this week, of the single incident where the

disciples asked the Lord directly to teach them about

something. It's found in Luke Chapter 11

Luke 11 · chapter mention

where they said Lord teach us to pray as John taught his

disciples. There was something about the

way Jesus prayed, how he prayed, when he prayed, that moved his

closest followers to inquire about the mechanics, the motives

of true prayer. And I believe that's what the

Lord has in store for us tonight.

We are going to learn how to pray specifically when we are

visited by devastating news, and it's going to be through

Hezekiah's example in the beginning of this study.

You know, people often ask, how do I seek the Lord effectively,

consistently, confidently? And one way that God has given

us instruction is by giving us models of prayer.

Men and women of God in the Scriptures who have poured out

their hearts before the Lord in different situations in order

for us to be fully furnished in our understanding of what it

means to come before the Lord and his presence to seek his

hand. And right from the beginning, we

are going to consider 4 essential characteristics of

effective prayer when real problems arrive.

These are not the only. Characteristics, but key ones,

and we're going to see them, I'm sure, by just looking at the

first handful of verses in Second Kings 19, beginning in

verse 14. Now some of these points are

going to serve as reminders, while others might introduce new

insights into how we bring our troubles before God.

Let's read together Second Kings 19, verse 14.

2 Kings 19:14

Hezekiah received a letter from the hand of the messengers and

read it. And Hezekiah went up to the

House of the Lord and spread it before the Lord.

And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord, the God

of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You

alone of all the kingdoms of the earth.

You have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and

hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see

and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent

to mock the living God. Truly, O Lord, the kings of

Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have

cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the

work of men's hands, wood and stone.

Therefore they were destroyed. So now, O Lord our God, save us

please from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may

know that you, O Lord, our God, alone so powerful. 4 essential

features of effective prayer in times of turmoil #1 you and I

must acknowledge the majesty. Of God always before Hezekiah

speaks about his problems, he fixes his mind on the

magnificence of his God. Do we not see it here?

I'm afraid that Christians often forget to include this in their

prayerful pursuit of relief right away.

Hezekiah in verse 15 says, O Lord, the God of Israel, and

thrown above the cherim, you are the God.

You alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, You have made heaven

and earth. Listen, when you and I

intentionally confess the attributes of God, that alone

contains the power of placing everything in its proper

perspective. And there even comes moments

where you and I do so, and we are drawn into a time of worship

that helps us forget the very fear of frustration that drove

us to pray in the 1st place. Has that ever happened to you?

But in order for this to be true of us, in order for this to

actually succeed in our attempts, we have to understand

who God is according to His Word.

Your prayers and mine have to be biblically informed, and it is

in God's Word alone, as you know, where we are taught who He

is. And so I want you to look back

at these verses and consider and you can actually answer out loud

of some of the things that Hezekiah says that proves that

his prayer life was instructed by his understanding of

Scripture. What does he say here?

What does he highlight about the Lord?

Anything stand out to you Again, you're welcome to speak out loud

if you're if you're willing, the God of Israel.

That is not unimportant. Anything else.

OK, there you go. Who is seated above the

cherubim? Absolutely anything else he.

Acknowledges that God. You are the God of all the

kingdoms. You made heaven and earth

beautiful, wonderful. Now let's look at these things

one by one. When he says God of Israel,

again, that's not an insignificant thing.

Hezekiah is reminding his own soul that God has a special

covenant with the people of Israel, that the people of

Israel have this pledge granted to them by the living God.

It's an unconditional promise. And one of the most important

things about this specific promise is that God assured this

people that he would preserve the divinic dynasty

unconditionally. And so essentially what Hezekiah

is doing from the beginning is that he is setting before his

mind at the forefront of his intercession, the faithfulness

of God. I am speaking to the God who has

made promises and has never broken one of them.

What a way to prepare your heart to seek the Lord.

What a way to frame your intercession, the God of Israel.

But it doesn't end there. Beyond that.

Now he says of the same God who is seated where above the

cherubim. I know one thing about Hezekiah

based on this, that he studied the book of Exodus because in

Exodus 2522 we read there that God promised Moses that he would

be found seated above the mercy seat between the cherubim.

And from that place he would speak to Moses to give him the

instructions that he was to give to the people of God.

So what is Hezekiah essentially appealing to when he says you

are the God who is seated above the cherubim?

Well, the cherubim are part of the mercy seat.

I believe what this man is doing is reminding himself that he is

coming to the Lord, comforting himself that he is making this

plea on the basis of God's mercy.

That Lord, when you chose to symbolically be enthroned on the

earth, you chose the seat of mercy.

Now I'm coming to you and asking for mercy when you and I come

before God. It is absolutely vital that we

recall his heart, even while we entreat his hand, as important

as it is to yes, think about his power, his omnipotence, his

abilities, Do not disconnect that from his compassion, his

tenderness, his kindness. He's not indifferent to us.

You see, some people when they come to the Lord and ask Him of

anything, they think they have to try to convince God as though

God is reluctant, as though God is there with his arms crossed.

Isn't my Son Jesus enough for you?

Is not the gospel enough for you as much as the gospel

sufficient? We learned there that yes, the

Lord has given us His Son. How much more than is He willing

to give us? And so you have to understand,

I'm coming to the one whose heart is for me.

He is merciful. He's sympathetic.

He invites me to him. I don't have to try to get his

attention by persuading him with my string of sentences.

All I have to do is come to him and trust that his heart, he,

he's a, he's kind to me. And then we.

See something else? Because at the same time he does

speak of God's power. It's not here though, it's in

the parallel account. So we find the same scene not

just in Second Kings, we find in Second Chronicles 32, in Isaiah

37. But look at Isaiah 37 where the

same prayer is recorded. Isaiah 37 verse 15.

Isaiah 37:15

Yes, the Lord is majestic, not just in His power, but in His

willingness to move in our lives.

But He does still underline His power.

Isaiah 3715. This is not mentioned in the

text of Second Kings 15 and 16 reads.

And Hezekiah pray to the Lord, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, we

cover that, and thrown above the cherubim, we cover that.

So what does he add here, O Lord of hosts?

What can that be translated as, O Lord of what armies?

Angelic armies? So Hezekiah here is

intentionally bringing to his own mind something that is

relevant to his crisis. Why would he say, oh Lord of

hosts, because he's surrounded by an army?

It makes sense, and this is something for you and I to

consider, that if we want to do our faith any good, we should

know how to address God in a way that makes sense to the thing

that is before us, the object of our worry, the cause of our

frustration. How familiar are you with who

God is and all that He is? Do you need encouragement?

Well, do you know that in Romans 15, five God is called the God

of endurance and encouragement? You and I know about the Holy

Spirit, but you also know that. He's called the Spirit of Wisdom

and Revelation and Ephesians 117 do you need?

Clarity, call upon Him who is the spirit of wisdom and

revelation. And so we have to we have to

equip ourselves if we're going to come boldly and effectively

in the place of prayer, acknowledge the majesty of God.

But you have to be informed about it first.

And Hezekiah is a biblicist. He's not ignorant of the

Scriptures and it fueled his prayer life and a few yours as

well. That's just the first

characteristic. We now come to the second one.

We have to understand that there is an invitation that we must

make. For the wisdom of God.

And while we make that invitation, we should rest.

So here's a way of titling this. Invite and rest in the wisdom of

God. That's what we find here in

verse 16 of Second Kings 19, after describing who God is and

verse 16, he says, incline your ear, O Lord, and hear.

Open your eyes, O Lord, and see and hear the words of

Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.

You know what's so beautiful about this invitation?

You don't get the sense that Hezekiah has a clue how God is

going to solve this situation, nor does he presume to give God

step by step ideas of how he should do it.

It's as though he's just coming in absolute simplicity.

Lord, just look at this, please. Lord, just see this.

Please hear this, please. And it doesn't go beyond that.

And here's the wonder of this. That's all that was required for

God to take action. You know, some of us have an

understanding of God as though he is some kind of employer.

You know, there's a lot of bosses that ask of their

employees, hey, if you have a problem, I don't want you to

just approach me with a problem. Come to my desk with what?

A solution. That's how some Christians think

God is like that. If you're going to come to him,

you should put together some plan of action that that you

should come prepared, so to speak, with how this should come

about. Not so.

We're children of the King. You and I have been granted

access to the throne of grace, and we can just come and spread

our needs before Him and call His attention to it and trust

that He will wholeheartedly move on our behalf or give us the

wisdom to know how to proceed. Paul tells us that the Spirit

helps us in our weakness. We just hear that, I think, OK,

yeah, I'm generally weak. No.

What kind of weakness is he Speaking of in that place in

Romans 826? For we do not know how we ought

to pray. We're very weak in prayer, are

we not? But we're guaranteed that the

Spirit is right there with us, translating every word

perfectly, bringing it before God so that nothing is missed.

Then, even if our prayers are reduced to size or repetition

because you don't know how to eloquently present yourself

before the power of God and the might of God and the authority

of God, we are, we are comforted to know that He knows exactly

what you need. My mind went to King David when

he was expelled from his own Kingdom because of Absalom, his

son, that rebel. And while he was enduring a

whirlwind of emotions, he was being reported to with different

updates. And one of the most terrifying

updates was that one of his chief counselors, Ahithophel,

sided with the rebels. And so weak, so dejected.

The only thing that this man could say on his way to safety

was, oh Lord, please turn the Council of Ahithophel into

foolishness. And God took that and he did

much more on behalf of his servant David.

He put a permanent end to a thoughtful so.

So it's a beautiful thing, is it not, that we can come fumbling

and unsure with how we're going to speak about these things.

And God calls us to still invite his wisdom and rest in it.

Rest in it. Thirdly, be honest before God.

1/3 Characteristic of effective prayer and time of crisis.

Be honest before God. Look at verse 17.

Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste to the

nations and their lands. I love that.

Yeah, there's some Christians who have very strange ideas

about what faith looks like. Faith that pleases God.

And to some believers, faith means that you should minimize

the severity of a situation, downplay it, maybe even outright

deny it. There are many ways that we do

this. A common way that I've seen in

my own life is that let's say, for example, that there is a

doctor, doctor's diagnosis or a report, and it's tragic.

You also, you have some believers who will, in their

response to faith, rebuke that. And they will even verbally

rebuke it, never to revisit it in their thoughts, never to

bring it up to anybody else, never to even bring it before

God. And that's not what Hezekiah

does here. He assesses what this problem

entails, how real it is, and he brings it before God in total

honesty. And if there's any instruction

here, it's it's quite obvious, I think, that this dispels any

notion that we shouldn't come before the Lord transparently.

You have every right to do that. Last Wednesday at our prayer

meeting, we were meditating before we started praying on

that famous verse in Hebrews 416.

Let us then with confidence. Approach the throne of grace.

That we may receive grace, or receive mercy and find grace in

times of need. You know what that word

confidence means and some of your translations might say.

Let us come what boldly it actually means in the original

to speak freely, to speak openly, to be frank.

No concealment. Be blunt.

That's not to say that we should speak without reverence, but it

does mean that we can speak honestly.

And so the invitation there is that we can come before the Lord

and express in words. This is what's confusing me.

I am confused. This is what's annoying me.

He's the one who is annoying me. She's the one who's bothering

me. This is what's making me

fearful. I'm terrified.

And what Hebrews tells us in that context is we have a high

priest who sympathizes with us as we do, so does this scoff at

us. It doesn't belittle us, We're

told by the Holy Spirit. Come with that kind of

confidence, Come with that kind of freedom.

Spill your heart out, whatever is in there.

This makes prayer more inviting. You'd be amazed at how many

Christians are intimidated, not just in corporate settings, even

in their own prayer lives. Be honest before God.

But as much as being honest before God about the

discouraging things are important, we should also, at

the same time, if you want to build your faith in prayer, have

the presence of mind to acknowledge other things, the

good in the midst of our pain. Now this doesn't mean that you

try to wishfully think or make up things to try to soothe your

soul, but it does mean that you should widen your your own

perspective and understanding the the the landscape, the total

landscape of what's taking place so that you can be built.

Up as you approach the Lord and believe Him for more.

One of the things in my life when I've been persecuted and

all of us in some way, I'm sure I've been persecuted.

Is as I cry out to God, I remind myself of the support system I

do have of the people in my life that love me and that are with

me and are standing by my side that has done me good.

And the way Hezekiah is doing it here in this situation is what

look at verse 18 and have cast their gods into the fire.

For they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wooden

stone. Yes, sure, Assyria bulldoze over

lands and kingdoms and armies, but those nations didn't serve

real gods. They serve things that were

created by men. So he's getting his facts right.

He's he's realizing I, I serve the true and living God.

You see how he's broadening his understanding.

Be honest before God. Be truthful to yourself.

And part of being truthful to yourself is also looking at the

good, seeing the positive, seeing the blessings, being

thankful. That will charge you up in the

place of faith and prayer and adoration before God.

Lastly, this is an obvious one, I'm sure, but all how we need to

be reminded of it. Seek, seek the glory of God.

Look at verse 19. So now, O Lord our God, save us,

please from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may

know that you, O Lord, our God alone.

This is why David is a man after God's own heart in it, or

Hezekiah in his own respect. He imitates David in this way

because his truest desire in this predicament is that the

Lord's honor would be known. It's not his own reputation.

It's not his own preservation. It's not anything else.

More than anything, it's God. I desire that through this

answer, people would recognize who you truly are and so use

this. Problem as a platform for you to

show up in your power and your grace and your might.

I don't know how that's going to look, but I'm just inviting you

to it. And a passion for the Lord to be

exalted in all things at all times will undoubtedly shape the

way you and I pray. In fact, it's the very motive

and ambition that will compel you to pray.

When you're moved by that, when you live for that, for God to be

known, then you will be driven to that place of inviting God

and seeking God for the sake of God's name.

And that's precisely what this man does.

What's the result? What's the result of Hezekiah's

praying? Look at verse 20.

Then Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah saying, thus says

the Lord the God of Israel, your prayer to me about Seneca of

king of Assyria. I have heard.

Now Isaiah records his own words here differently, a little

differently, not in a contradictory way, but in a way

that completes what he says to Hezekiah.

So go to Isaiah 37. This will be worth it.

And look at verse 21 of Isaiah 37.

Then Isaiah the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says

the Lord the God of Israel, because you have prayed to me,

Because you have prayed to me, concerning Seneca of king of

Assyria, implying what if you had not prayed, I wouldn't have

answered. But Hezekiah, because you took

the time to be strategic and intentional of coming to my

house, laying this request before me, I will do something

about it. What's the encouraging thing

about this verse God hears when we pray.

What's the warning if you don't pray?

God might not move, so why not pray when things hinge on our

prayers? I know we can sit across the

table and debate about the sovereignty of God and how that

works with our prayers. And I'm not here to debate

anything. I'm here to take the Word of God

at face value. There are things that will not

happen in my life or yours unless we pray.

Full stop. So instead of spending my energy

trying to understand all the intricacies and all the

mechanics of this, I'm simply going to do what?

Pray, Pray and trust that God will do something because I

prayed. Now I gave you 4 characteristics

of essential effective prayer, but I want to give you a bonus

one. And the bonus 1 is not in Second

Kings 19. It's not in Isaiah 37.

It's in that other book, Second Chronicles 32.

Look at verse 22nd Chronicles 32 while we have Bible study people

cut their grass Second Chronicles 32 verse 20 Then

2 Chronicles 32:20

Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amos prayed

because of this and cried to. Heaven.

You know, when people come to this story in Second Kings, they

are often moved by the imagery of this royal man leaving his

throne, leaving his palace, making his way to the public

sphere of worship, and taking this letter and spreading it

before the presence of God, saying, Lord, you need to do

this. And it is a moving sight.

It's a wonderful picture, but people tend to forget this side

of Hezekiah's praying. What does he do?

He invites the prophet to pray with him.

So don't just limit it to Hezekiah.

I see here this king calling his companion a man of God, saying

let's pray and cry out to God in unison.

What a sight that is. Here you have the king and here

you have the chief prophet of the time lifting up their voices

together for God to come end up moving.

He should be moving, and I believe something similar takes

place in this very sanctuary, week after week on Wednesday

nights. Can I ask you something In the

surprising afflictions of your life, in the seasons of

challenges, have you ever considered calling a friend?

A friend who prays, a friend who fears God, a friend who loves

God and inviting them to the House of God so that you and him

or her can intercede on behalf of a wayward child, a struggling

marriage, financial strain, a dead end situation.

Has that ever occurred to you? Let this be your inspiration.

I'm calling so and so. And we're going to go to the

House of God. We're going to hold hands, we're

going to put our arms around each other and we're going to

seek the Lord together. If this, if this moves me, if

Isaiah and Hezekiah coming together and seeking God moves

me, how much more do you think it moves God?

And that's not just a way for you to come to prayer on

Wednesday. It's never mind Wednesday night

prayer meeting. When's the last time you and I

have considered? To call a friend and saying, you

know, this is what's going on in my family.

This is what's going on in my own heart.

This is what's going on in my own spiritual journey.

Will you commit with me to pray for one week And let's just

bombard heaven and let's acknowledge the majesty of God

and let's invite the wisdom of God.

And let's just be honest before God and let's let's seek God's

glory in this matter together. And let's see what God does.

This is the second time that Hezekiah went to the House of

God when he was visited. By a threat two out of two 100%

of the time. What kind of inspiration was

this for the people of Israel? Remember he went to the House of

the Lord. As much as we need our own

prayer clauses. This man went before others and

they saw wow the king. Prays what a leader showing the

people what they should do when they don't know what to do.

Oh, I pray parents, that you have that same conviction that

your kids when they see that things are going wrong, when

uncle so and so or or Grandpa so and so we get we get together

and pray we seek the Lord. May the Lord give us the grace

to remember this as a reflex. Now the rest of this chapter

contains the detailed response God gave to Hezekiah through the

prophet Isaiah. And the Holy Spirit could have

simply summarized this and said the Lord heard His Servant and

acted on his behalf. But he doesn't do that.

We read here and said that there's a lengthy, specific

answer, and clearly this is important for us.

And more than that, not just because it's it's long here,

it's detail, it's because it's found also in Isaiah 37.

So whatever Isaiah is ready to say, it's repeated.

And it's meant for us to investigate more closely what

the Lord is revealing in it. So here's how we're going to do

this. We're going to comb through

these verses lightly and make brief comments every other verse

perhaps, or in a collection of verses, and see what the Lord

wants to say to us in a specific promise that He gives to the

king. Let's begin here in verse 21.

This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him.

She despises you. She scorns you, the virgin

daughter of Zion. She wags her head behind you,

the daughter of Jerusalem. Whom have you mocked and

reviled? Against whom have you raised

your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights against the Holy

One of Israel? By your messengers you have

mocked the Lord, and you have said, With my many Chariots I've

gone up the heights of the mountains to the far recesses of

Lebanon. I felt its tallest Cedars, its

choices cypresses. I entered its farthest lodging

place, its more most fruitful forest.

I dug wells and drank foreign waters, and I dried up with the

sole of my foot all the streams of Egypt.

So with this cluster of verses, I want to make one simple point.

God not only hears very carefully the cries of the

righteous, he also remembers. The Bose, the taunts and the

blasphemies of the wicked. Look back at verse 23 again.

Remember now he's speaking to Hezekiah about what he is saying

regarding Senekreb, the king of Assyria, and about Senekreb he

says in the middle of verse 23. And you?

Have said, and you have said so God is not just aware about the

letter that Senekreb gave to Hezekiah, He's also aware of

what he said prior to. This.

And what's the essence of what Seneca was saying?

That his army was essentially unstoppable.

Look at some of the language again.

I have gone up to the heights of the mountains, to the far

Reese's of Lebanon. I felt its taller Cedars, its

choices Cypress. I entered it.

He's saying that there is nothing and no one that could

stop me earlier. He says my many Chariots have

gone up the heights of mountains.

Chariots don't go up mountains. They can only work with level

ground. But he's saying my Chariots, Oh

no, they can go up any mountain. Oh yeah, there's some natural

borders, some seas and rivers and Niles.

But look what he says in verse 24.

I dried up with the sole of my foot.

All the streams of Egypt, the amount of men that I have when

we crossed creeks and rivers, that kind of impact made those

things dry. And the Lord says I I've heard

all your boasts. All your accolades.

Not only is he aware of the words, look at verse 27.

We didn't read it yet, but just to give you an idea, he says

he's of Seneca. But I know you're sitting down

and you're going out and coming in and you're raging against me

because you have raged against me and your complacency has come

into my ears. I'll put Hook in your nose and

my bit in your mouth and I will turn you back on the way by

which you came. I know where you go.

I know where you come from. I know when you stop.

I know when you accelerate. So essentially what the Lord is

saying is I know everything about you.

Now, for for somebody to have such a detailed understanding of

someone else means that he's very passionate about it.

And what I learned here is that God is passionate about his

dealings with the proud. Remember Job?

We all do. I'm sure by the end of the book,

the Lord appears to Job and challenges him because Job was

questioning the sovereignty of God.

Job was essentially challenging the sovereignty of God.

And so the Lord responds to the challenge and he says, let's see

if we're alike. And it begins to list all these

different things that he does. And from time to time, he says.

Are you aware? Of when this happens.

Can you do this if so, then we we can have this conversation,

but it just one after the other these different abilities of the

Lord presents of himself and there's one thing that I think

people miss about God and his sovereignty.

It's in Job 40 verse 11. God says this man, pour out the

Job 40:11

overflowings of your anger and look on everyone who is proud

and obeys him. Look on everyone who is proud

and bring him low and tread down the wicked where they stand.

And the verse is out there. He says if you can do this, then

you can save yourself. In your knowledge of the

sovereignty of God, have you ever considered God's ability to

humble absolutely everyone who's proud?

That's fascinating to me. We think of creation, we think

of salvation, we think of healing, we think of miracles.

No, no, add this to the category of God's sovereignty.

He's able to humble every arrogant person on the earth,

and if you wanted to, you could do it at the same time.

So we see here that God feels very strongly.

About the proud as much as he is passionate about the prayers of

his people. He's also very fervent about

hearing what men say in defiance of God and uplifting themselves

and dealing with them accordingly.

So here's what I learned looking at this this afternoon.

If God feels this way about pride, how do I protect myself

from it? That's a good question, right?

Are we susceptible to pride as Christians?

If you say no, that's an indication that you're probably

struggling with it, of course. Is there any clue in Second

Kings 19 that can help my heart be shielded against this venom,

this poison called pride? Absolutely.

Look at verse 25 of Second Kings. 19 We didn't read it yet.

After he reveals that he knows what Senekrep said in verse 25,

he says something to Senekrep. Have you not heard that?

I determined it long ago. I planned from days of old, what

now I bring to pass, that you should turn fortified cities

into heaps of ruins, while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,

are dismayed and confounded, and have become like plants of the

field and like tender grass, like grass on the housetops

blighted before it has grown. What is God saying, Seneca?

Here you are Tooting your own horn, telling yourself and

everybody else how wonderful you are, how how you're the

superpower of a nation, how you take over anything and anyone.

And I'm here to inform you that I am the one who gave you such

success that what you're realizing now has been

foreordained. That in my Providence I have

weakened these other nations. And I've raised you up as the

rod of my anger to chastise these other people groups for

their iniquity. In other words, the reason why

Seneca was so proud was because he believed that it was his

wisdom and his strength and his training and his resources that

brought about his success. And the Lord's here to tell him,

no, it's actually because of my sovereignty.

That's the essence of you and I. That's the antidote against

pride. Constantly being mindful that

every ounce of intelligence. Of creativity, of wisdom.

Any open door, whether small or very wide, is because God

permitted it, because God enabled you.

And when you and I lose sight of that and began to look at

ourselves and praise ourselves and boast in ourselves, you're

treading on dangerous ground. You know what's amazing about

this is that God confronts Senekreb about his sovereignty.

Even though Senekreb was not in a relationship to God, he was

not. He was not in covenant with God.

He was an enemy of. God, and this is not really

spiritual, is it? God's not talking about his

sovereignty over your spiritual gifts and your knowledge of

scripture and your holiness. He's talking about your

innovative abilities, your ability to to think about things

and strategize. Any aspect of life must be

acknowledged as God's goodness in your life.

Any good, any anything, any prosperity, any power has to go

back to Him as the permitter, and only when you live.

Under that revelation, are you protected from exactly what's

going to get Senek Rebbe in trouble?

So he says. I'm here to tell you, because

clearly you didn't hear that. I determined all of this a long

time ago. I authored this.

Unfortunately, Senekreb is not going to humble himself

regardless. So what do we find next?

Well, we see here that Senekreb is about to be visited by a

surprise. And before that surprise comes,

we see something else here in verse 30.

We read verse 28. Let's read verse 29 and verse

30. And this shall be the sign for

you. And now he's speaking to

Hezekiah. This year eat what grows of

itself and in the second year what springs of the same.

Then in the third year sow and reap and plant vineyards and eat

their fruit. So he promises Hezekiah with a

sign of how he will know that this victory over Seneca will be

of God and it will be a lasting peace.

You know the the brutality of a siege when a an army surrounds a

city. Is that essentially they

confiscate all their foods, all their goods, so they starve to

death. Essentially they're starving to

surrender. And the difficulty there is not

only do they confiscate, they also limit the people from being

able to produce their own food, right?

They're stuck within the city walls.

And So what the Lord says, the essence of the sign is you're

going to eat what grows of itself and in the second year

with springs of the same. So once I put a hook in

Senecabbs nose, put a bit in his mouth and pull him back to his

hometown. You know why the Lord?

Said that by the way, because that's what the Assyrians would

do to their victims. Historically speaking, this is

how vicious this people group were.

Wonder why Jonah was hesitant to go and preach to them when they

would take over, when they would have they when, when they would

have victory over a people group, they would so demoralize

them that they would make them seem like beast and they would

put actual sharp objects in their limbs, in parts of their

body and drag them back to their own demise.

You're going to do that to people.

I'm going to do it to you. And he says to Israel, he says

to Judah specifically. Here's the sign that you know

that I've done this well and it's a complete job.

For the first two years after, you're not going to have to sow

anything. The earth is going to produce

itself. And by the third year, there's

going to be the natural course again of farming and

agricultural cycles. And you'll go back to normal

watch. You're going to be able to go

back to the way life was without any interruption.

You're going to have peace again.

I'm going to bring this peace. And so they were comforted with

this, but but farming wasn't the only thing that God had in mind.

There was a different kind of revival.

Look at verse 30. And the surviving remnant of the

House of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit

upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go a

remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors.

The zeal of the Lord will do this.

So remember, before Jerusalem was surrounded, there were all

these neighboring towns in Judah that were that were taken over.

And the Lord says there's a remnant left.

But I want to promise you this, that the remnant will go

downward in their roots and they will bear fruit upward.

In other words, they're going to be planted in this land and they

are going to flourish right here.

Nothing is going to change that. And so it's wonderful assurance.

But I want to tell you something.

In verse 30, Do you see the spiritual principle there?

Look at it again. The surviving remnant of the

House of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit

upward. How do you and I bear fruit?

According to this verse, it's impossible unless you first

invest in inner hidden rootedness.

You and I cannot even fathom making any kind of spiritual

impact unless we find our souls deeply invested in the things

that caught God calls us to be invested in.

And so if there's going to be anything on the surface, if

there's going to be anything that's worthwhile outside,

observable, tangible, there needs to be something in the

secret place of my heart, my affections and my ambitions have

to be deeply rooted and nourished by primarily the Word

of God, my relationship with God, the presence of God.

You, you and I cannot grow on accident.

There needs to be a determination that we will first

plant ourselves where God calls us to be planted and to remain

there for the life of God to come through and for there to be

true fruit. And I can tell you this,

wherever there is shallow Christianity, it's inevitably

because of shallow roots. So we even see something of a

proverb here, do we not? I believe so.

Be encouraged by that. Before I move on to the final

verses, look at the last statement of verse 31.

The Lord signs off on this promise by saying what?

The zeal of the Lord will do this.

You know what that means? Here's how you can translate it.

My passion for this 'cause will bring about the reality of it.

I was looking at this today and here's the thought that crossed

my mind. If God is passionate about His

work, how much more us God is passionate about his will.

The zeal of the Lord will do this.

We see, we see this phrase in different places in Scripture

and I'm invited to do what God calls me to do, but I don't want

to just obey his commands. I want to do it with the passion

that God calls me to have for it.

Don't settle for just mechanical routine observance.

If you and I really want to get things done for the King of God,

we have to tap into a spirit inspired zeal.

What was said of Jesus zeal for your house has consumed me the.

Zeal of the Lord. Will do this in Deuteronomy.

Where it went wrong for the people of Israel is when they

stop serving the Lord with joy and gladness of heart.

Don't allow this to condemn you. Allow this to be an invitation

for you. Lord, I want zeal.

I need zeal. Supply that zeal, Be inspired by

it and trust that God is able to provide it.

If He is passionate about His work, let us also be passionate

about it. Speaking of passion, this really

convicted me. This actually bothered me.

Every time I go through kings, this never ceases to irk me.

I'm going to skip over verse 32 and verse 34.

We'll read that at the end. Look at verse 35.

That night the Angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000

in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in

the morning, behold, these are all dead bodies.

Then Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went home

and lived at Nineveh, And as he was worshipping in the House of

Nisraj, his God Ajahmalek and Shahrazar, his son struck him

down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat.

And Esther had on his son reigned in his place.

Did you see it? What stands out to you about

Sennacherib's response to his defeat?

Anything. He goes to his God.

Guess what he does? He worships.

Does that bother anybody else? What bothers me about it is the

sheer determination of this Pagan, his commitment to his

false God, his resilience in. One night you lost close to

200,000 of your men. You were put to shame because of

one man's prayer. This man, Hezekiah didn't shoot

1 arrow, he didn't fling one sword, he didn't do anything.

He just got on his knees and cried out to God and you were

defeated. In less than 24 hours.

And what does this man do? Does he go and he topples his

idols, Burn them? Renounce his deities?

What does he do? He worships his God.

And here we have some believers. Not here.

That's a general comment. In our day we have believers.

All it takes is a little trouble, a little persecution, a

little suffering. I forget this God.

I didn't sign up for this when I said I would follow Jesus.

You want to be. Provoked.

Look at Senekreb. That's the only place where I'll

ever say look at Senekreb. He goes straight back to his God

and he worships. After all this loss.

After being embarrassed, after being defeated on a world scale,

a loser, and he goes before a Pagan God and he worships.

And here we have our God who's never been defeated, who loves

us more than you can imagine, who and everything in our lives,

even the painful thing that are being applied to the masterpiece

of the testimony that he's trying to create and we are

ready to turn away from him, may not be so of us.

Let's come to the final verses, verse 32.

Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria,

he shall not come into the city, or shoot an arrow there, or come

before with a shield, or cast up a siege mount against it, by the

way that he came. By the same he shall return, and

he shall not come into the city, declares the Lord.

For I will defend the city to save it for my own sake, and for

the sake of my servant David. Tell you why I'm ending here?

Because there's a gospel truth tucked in it.

Don't we see it? God makes it so incredibly

clear. The reason why I'm going to come

and intervene and defend you is because, yes #1 for my sake, but

also because I made a promise to one man, David.

David lived long before this time.

David was in a tomb. And yet this generation would

benefit from one man's covenant with God.

And here we are, hidden in Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the

greater King, who's given us a greater covenant.

And any reward that you and I enjoy, any promise of eternal

life, any blessing that we are recipients of, is solely because

of who He is and how we are related to Him by faith.

Not as though God is hesitant to work in our lives or be good to

us, but because Jesus stepped in and was willing to be the

mediator between a very reluctant God and a stubborn

people. That's not so.

The Father is just as much invested and included in this

plan of redemption and the blessing that would come in

Christ. But we have to understand, it's

because I bear His name. I'm clothed in his

righteousness. I, I live in Him that God will

do what he alone can do. That's why you and I pray in

Jesus name. We're not coming in our own

name. We're not coming with our own

merit, with our own righteousness.

We're coming on the basis of the Son of God and how he stood in

the gap for us. And that is something that the

Lord God Almighty will always smile at.

And so be refreshed today. So much is available to us

because of Christ and us. And I want to invite you today

in this brief moment, that if you've come here like Hezekiah,

even though in the background nobody may even know about it,

you are trying to solve something that seems impossible,

that is sucking the life out of you.

You barely made it into this very room.

Just acknowledge His Majesty. Invite Him, and when you invite

him, rest in the very wisdom that you're asking for.

Trust of the Spirit in your weakness will translate

everything that you're trying to communicate, and a perfect plan

will be on its way. Be honest before God and and

maybe you've never done this before.

Maybe you've only seen prayer as a way of getting God to do

something for you. But let tonight be the the

beginning of a new way of praying for the glory of God,

Deliver, save, provide, protect, intervene, solve Lord.

And that through this people would say that God is a real

God, that God is a God who loves his people.

Can we pray now? Let's do it.

We gladly, Father, in our collective weakness, come before

You. So many things have been said.

It can actually be overwhelming at times.

What we trust that You will bring to remembrance what is

needed at the right time. And we ask that You help us

retain these truths that have been shared tonight, Lord, where

there may be a lack of zeal. We pray that you breathe fresh

wind into our sails, that we may have this zeal that you have for

your doings. Where there may be a weakness in

prayer, let that change tonight. Where there may be a temptation

to even for a season, pull away from you in our anger and our

disappointments, or may never be so.

If Seneca can worship his dumb idol, how much more are you

worthy of our consistent adoration in all things?

And Lord, with everything else that was expounded on tonight,

we just pray that you would receive glory in our response.

We just want to acknowledge you and thank you for who you are.

You never failed to touch our hearts.

We glorify you now as your church in Jesus name, Amen.

Let's stand and worship the Lord together.